Entering The Shadow Rift
After leaving Brigdarrow, the westward journey along East Timori Road meanders into the darkness of Wytchwood (the same twisted forest in which you dispatched the three hags who’d been plaguing the town with their barren, child-thieving corruption until a fortnight ago) with much thanks to The LawGiver’s Wall of Blades at the intercession of Brother Akold.
Winter is now passed, and the late spring weather portends of the soon to come summer months of the Northern Core. On the distant horizon of the road before you an immense wall of twisting black fog rises from the ground to a seemingly infinite height in the sky - - the border of the Shadow Rift.
Your access to the interior of the Shadow Rift is achieved by traversing an underground cave network from Wytchwood known as “the Fracture.” Once through and into the Shadow Rift you realize you have no memory of the journey through the Fracture itself - - though it has left an impression on you - - two days of rations are expended and Emalin Seatoe now bears a long jagged scar across his forehead; it must be magically cured within two days or permanent scarring will result in the loss of 1 Charisma Point.
(Erathos recalls this otherworldly temporal experience occurring on his last expedition into the Shadow Rift (now over thirty years ago) in the final days of his years’ long pursuit of Tonic which ultimately culminated in facing the demon along with Prince Loht of the dark elves at the Obsidian Gate . . . )
Inside, The Shadow Rift is a world unlike anything else. At your back, sheer cliffs rise high into the sky before vanishing into a boiling sea of dark.
There is no sun or moon, only perpetual twilight and the phosphorescent glow of certain creatures, plants and fungi in various luminescent blues, greens, voilets and magentas . . .
In some ways ,however, all your sensory perception (including that of the darkness itself) is more intense inside The Shadow Rift - - as if when you look upon a field of grass you can see every blade of it with distinction and, with that, every blade seems to move and shimmer on its own . . .
Finally, after several miles travel to the northwest you come upon another sheer cliff wall rising high into the lightless sky above - - following Pieter’s directions from Brigdarrow you eventually come upon the mouth of a cave perched on a small ledge a few hundred feet from the canyon’s floor - - the mouth of the Shadow Run which should lead to Stangengrad in Falkovnia and you proceed inside . . .
